A Matter of Perception
by MusexMoirai
Summary: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. Sequel to 'Black Cities and Rot.' Fandom: Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. Warning: Slash content. Pairing: ElijahDaneel


Title: A Matter of Perception  
  
Author: musexmoirai  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Fandom: Isaac Asimov's Robot Series  
  
Pairing: Elijah/Daneel  
  
Feedback: Si, por favor  
  
Disclaimer: Wish Elijah and Daneel were mine. I would take good care of them. Alas, they belong to Isaac Asimov.  
  
Author's Notes: For the contrelamontre flash-forward challenge and because datenshiblue requested a sequel from Daneel's POV. Takes place slightly after The Robots of Dawn.  
  
***  
  
Fifty years from now, he will still be standing.  
  
Five hundred years from now, he will still be walking.  
  
He will always have been alive without ever having lived.  
  
That's why it's easy for him to hold onto Elijah one day and let him go the next.  
  
*** Elijah landed on Aurora a few hours before the storms came.  
  
He came to Dr. Fastolfe's house and didn't know what to do, so he knocked. It was a custom he had seen on antiquated Earth movies.  
  
Giskard was sent to let him in. He kept his head down and couldn't meet the robot's eyes. A silly and useless gesture, as he knew that Giskard could not condemn him, but it nonetheless gave him a measure of comfort.  
  
In the grand house, he felt powerless and infantile, surrounded by a womb of steel and metal on all sides.  
  
Fastolfe said nothing to him but instructed the robots to give Elijah food. He had no taste for the meal and the bath drawn for him afterward did nothing to raise his spirits.  
  
He had lain awake on one of Fastolfe's bed, shaking and mute, listening to the rain outside. There had never been any storms on Earth and he was terrified of the thunder and lightning and the hideous destruction that reminded him of death.  
  
Then Daneel had been there and Elijah had reached out with blind hands, clutching for life and warmth. With each blast of lightCRASHlight, he had shuddered and pulled Daneel closer, trying to force the two bodies into one.  
  
He tried to take as much as he could from Daneel and Daneel had let him. This was written in the robot's programming.  
  
There are some rhythms the human soul never forgets, no matter how many years it lives, and the memory of these rhythms- lifesexdeath- had pounded through Elijah's blood.  
  
Then the storm lifted and the sunrise came.  
  
That was the first night.  
  
*** Elijah says he will go for a walk after drinking tea. He likes spicy strong tea; he likes the way Daneel makes it.  
  
He likes the bitterness of tea. It tastes like grief. Tea is a luxury he still indulges. He stopped crying long ago. He is healing.  
  
Elijah says he would like to go out for a walk. He has gotten over his agoraphobia, the terror that kept him long indoors. He likes to take long walks outside and he will often invite Daneel to join him. Elijah will point out the plants whose names he learned that day and he will say how beautiful they are and Daneel will nod.  
  
He thinks Daneel does not truly appreciate beauty but he is wrong.  
  
Elijah picks up an extra overjacket and adjusts his clothes. Daneel moves to join him at the door.  
  
Elijah shakes his head. "It's all right, Daneel. I will take another one of Fastolfe's robots with me. Please do not come."  
  
An order. Daneel cannot refuse.  
  
Elijah begins to walk out, then stops and goes back to Daneel. The man's arms go around the robot and he mouths something into Daneel's neck. The humaniform cannot hear the silent words but he can feel them and, after a minute's calculation, he deduces the longest word.  
  
Love.  
  
Daneel is programmed to be pleased when Elijah smiles. Even with the streaks of white at his temples and the lines etched on the skin, Elijah looks young when he smiles.  
  
Then Elijah leaves and Elijah never returns and Fastolfe's robot comes home alone.  
  
That was the last night.  
  
Daneel had known it would happen. He had calculated probabilities and he knew the odds. He knew enough about human nature, about Elijah's nature, to know that the man would not have stayed.  
  
He had simply left sooner than Daneel had predicted. But robots do not cry.  
  
Even five hundred years from now, Daneel will look up into some distant place. The horizon or other planets or maybe the stars. He will wish Elijah happiness wherever Elijah may be. Sometimes, his electronic eyes may blink faster than normal, as if holding back tears.  
  
But robots do not cry. 


End file.
